Legalize Virus

Virus Name: Legalize Aliases: V Status: Rare Discovered: May, 1992 Symptoms: .COM & .EXE growth; decrease in total system and available free memory; programs may not execute properly Origin: The Netherlands Eff Length: 1,781 Bytes Type Code: PRhA - Parasitic Resident .COM & .EXE Infector Detection Method: ViruScan, F-Prot, Sweep, IBMAV, AVTK, NAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan, ChAV, NShld, Sweep/N, NProt, AVTK/N, NAV/N, IBMAV/N, Innoc, LProt Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The Legalize virus was received from The Netherlands in May, 1992. This virus is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE programs, but not COMMAND.COM. When the first Legalize infected program is executed, the Legalize virus will install itself memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Total system and available free memory, as indicated by the DOS CHKDSK program, will have decreased by 2,064 bytes. Interrupt 21 will be hooked by Legalize in memory. Interrupt 12's return will not have been moved. After the Legalize virus has become memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE programs when they are executed or opened for any reason. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 1,781 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the infected file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will not be altered. One text string can be found within the viral code in all infected programs: "LEGALIZE" Systems infected with the Legalize virus may notice that some infected programs will no longer function properly, giving unexpected results. See: Gotcha